Inside Move

Flockhart mulls stage return

By CLAUDE BRODESSER

NEW YORK -- Gotham is ablaze with talk about whether "Ally McBeal" star Calista Flockhart is headed to Off Broadway this summer. Flockhart, who hails from the New York stage and who had left a production of "Three Sisters" at the Roundabout to do "McBeal," is said to be hungry to return to her theatrical roots, at least during the summer hiatus of her hit series.

An offer is understood to be out to Flockhart to star in a revival of John van Druten's "I Am a Camera." Play is based on Christopher Isherwood's "The Berlin Stories," also the basis of the musical "Cabaret."

The producer of "Camera," according to insiders, is "Electra" co-producer Eric Krebs, who controls both the 199-seat Douglas Fairbanks Theater and the John Houseman Theater Off Broadway.

Krebs, for his part, said, "I don't know anything about it." He denied having spoken to Flockhart and declined to speak about a possible production.

But insiders at the producing offices of Barry and Fran Weissler, the producers of Kenneth Lonergan's "This Is Our Youth," currently at the Fairbanks, say the producers are mulling closing down "Youth," which has been struggling to find an audience.

Plans call for Flockhart to begin rehearsals in early May for three weeks and then do a five-week run.

Flockhart is repped by Bill Butler at the Gersh Agency, who confirmed that numerous offers, including one for "Camera," had been tendered, and said the thesp is mulling her options. He declined to identify the producers of the theatrical projects, but insiders at the American Place Theater confirm that she has also been offered a role in Julia Dahl's "Wonderland," skedded to bow this June.